


Sunshine and Snow

by potentiality_26



Category: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (TV)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 04:42:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16298390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potentiality_26/pseuds/potentiality_26
Summary: “Mr. Strange never called up a blizzard in the middle of summer?”“Not that I am aware of.”  Childermass’ smile was probably meant to be kind, but in Segundus’ current humor it primarily looked mocking.  “But of course, if you would open up a school of magic, you must suppose these things will happen.”Segundus runs afoul of some weather magic.





	Sunshine and Snow

**Author's Note:**

> I could swear I once read a fic with a similar premise to this, but when I went looking for it to check that it wasn't too similar I couldn't seem to find it. If you recognize anything, let me know and I'll reference it (ETA: [A Plea to Flowers](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4367435) by [A Big Sexy Jellyfish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/abigsexyjellyfish/pseuds/A%20Big%20Sexy%20Jellyfish) is lovely and briefly mentions similar snow-in-summer weather magic. I believe it's the fic I was thinking of). Written for the H/C bingo prompt "taking care of somebody".

“I must tell you, Mr. Segundus,” Childermass was saying, “that I have never known anyone with such singularly bad luck.”

Segundus elected not to reply- for one thing, he did not wish to encourage Childermass’ needling in such a way.  For another, no response immediately sprang to his mind.  Nor, indeed, would he have been immediately able to respond if one had.  He was too busy sneezing.

Childermass, having proffered a handkerchief for the business, returned to what he had been doing: stoking the fire.  His hair, working as it so often did loose from the ties he had drawn it into, fell across his face.  Segundus was, sadly, in no state to appreciate the sight.  As Childermass crouched down before the fireplace, Segundus sat heavily in a chair not two feet away.

When he finally stopped sneezing long enough to address Childermass, he said, “Is it not your experience, then, that weather magic is unpredictable in the hands of a beginner?”

Childermass straightened up, looking thoughtful.  “I suppose it must be.  But-”

“But?” Segundus sniffed.

“But Mr. Norrell was not precisely a beginner when I first knew him.  And Mr. Strange…”

“Mr. Strange never called up a blizzard in the middle of summer?”

“Not that I am aware of.”  Childermass’ smile was probably meant to be kind, but in Segundus’ current humor it primarily looked mocking.  “But of course, if you would open up a school of magic, you must suppose these things will happen.” 

“I am in no mood for this taunting,” Segundus grumbled.  Many times he had counted himself blessed that Childermass was no longer the enemy he had seemed when Segundus first took it into his head to open up this school, and had become instead a useful ally and- indeed- a dear friend.  And even when Childermass’ friendship came to also be the source of a secret but surprisingly keen sorrow- bittersweet, because Segundus knew it could never be anything more- Segundus still appreciated it. 

Childermass had been both ally and friend on this particular day.  He had arrived at speed when he heard what was amiss; he had comforted the boy responsible for the magic and dispelled the magic itself largely on his own; and when he found Segundus chilled to the bone in the center of the blizzard he bundled him up and took him inside, where he proceeded to build a roaring fire despite the otherwise abominable heat. 

And here Segundus was, being cross with him!  He was cross with himself for it, which did not improve his mood at all.

Childermass appeared untroubled, however.  His kind look transfigured into something altogether more sly, and he said, “Very good, sir.  I shall endeavor to stop.”

"Let me know if you manage it.”  Segundus found a reluctant smile tugging at his lips, even as he drew the blanket Childermass had thrown over his shoulders a little tighter to him. He must have been rather an amusing sight earlier, standing out in that field, turning in horror too late as the clouds formed over him and then dumped several buckets worth of snow on his head.  It was almost a shame that Childermass had not seen it.  He said so, the humor he found in it now only slightly reluctant.

Childermass’ sly look deepened.  “I have already thought so, more than once.”

It felt as if it had been summer for an age.  Whether the students had intended to use the weather magic to make it snow or whether a stray thought about lovely frozen things was to blame Segundus did not know.  They had certainly elected to make the best of it; he could still hear them playing in what remained of the snow before it could melt.  “It’s enough to make a man pine for the energy of youth,” Segundus said, jerking his chin in that direction.

“You are not old, Mr. Segundus.  Or, if you are, I am ancient.”

“Nonsense."  Childermass was only a few years Segundus' senior, though there was something about him that always made him appear older.  Hard living in his youth was to blame, Segundus supposed.  He wished, sometimes, that there was something he might do to ease that pain, but he knew it was beyond the power of both the magical and the mundane.  Segundus attempted to rise and discovered a whole host of new aches and pains.  Childermass had to catch him by the elbow to keep him from pitching over.  “Perhaps I am old after all," Segundus laughed, a little breathlessly.  "I cannot tolerate this cold as I once did.”

“You must take care to keep warm,” Childermass agreed.  “Or you might take ill.”

“Will you look after me if I do?”

Segundus stopped, regretting these words the moment he uttered them.  He and Childermass had achieved together an easy rhythm which he had long wished for and presently prized above gold.  Unfortunately, as long as there were other, less achievable things Segundus wished for in this world, it was too easy to follow that rhythm too far.  Segundus worried that he had done just that, only... Childermass looked unusually grave, then, and said, “It would be a pleasure.”

Segundus struggled to keep his voice even- and to speak at all.  It occurred to him all in a rush how close Childermass was.  “I think that unlikely.  I am very difficult when ill.” 

“That presupposes that you are not sometimes difficult when you are well.”

“True.  You have seen me at my worst already, I believe.”

"Perhaps.  If so, you can have nothing to fear.”

Segundus' mouth began to be very dry.  He felt they were on the cusp of something, but he was wary, still, of taking the next step.  He had misjudged Childermass before, more than once.  He had thought he was finished with it, but perhaps he had been wrong.  Perhaps he had done so the moment he convinced himself that anything he felt beyond friendship must necessarily go unrequited.  And yet... how could he ask, now, when there was still a chance he had not misjudged?  How could he know for sure?  He noticed again how fetchingly Childermass’ hair fell across his face.  And then he noticed how red that face had become.  “You are overheated,” Segundus said at last.

“Yes,” Childermass agreed.

Segundus lifted a hand and gave in to an age old impulse to brush that lock of hair aside, fingers slipping over a scarred cheek in the process.  “Perhaps you should stand away from the fire.”

“Perhaps.”  Childermass folded Segundus’ hand in his and held it against his chest.  “Or perhaps that would not do me any good at all.”

Segundus had to grip him hard to keep from falling over- that time for reasons which had nothing whatsoever to do with the cold, or with age, or with any aches and pains he might be subject to at the moment.

He felt more unsteady still when Childermass added, in a low voice, “You must know how much I…”  His voice hitched faintly.  ‘Well.  How much I esteem you.  Even when you are difficult.”

Segundus laughed faintly.  He felt something approaching giddiness, and it was not only because of the light-headed strangeness Segundus knew from dismal experience that one might suffer after a bout with dangerous magic, any more than Childermass’ flush was only a result of the heat.  He felt sad, too- but not very sad.  He was only sorry about wasted time.  “I think I have done you a disservice, Mr. Childermass,” he said. 

Childermass looked a little wary- not much, just enough that Segundus felt for him.  On the rare occasion that Segundus had imagined putting his feelings to Childermass, he had thought himself in... rather a complicated position.  It seemed to him now that Childermass’ would have been even more complicated, for both their shared history and their divergent backgrounds put him at a distinct disadvantage- strange as it was to imagine Childermass ever at a disadvantage at all. 

“I esteem you, too,” Segundus told him.  “And I should have said something, only I... I was afraid.”

“I thought you were quite finished being afraid of me.”  Childermass’ eyes were crinkled then, and he looked exceedingly warm- an expression Segundus could recognize, suddenly, from times when Childermass had teased him in the past.  He felt rather foolish for not recognizing it before.  For not recognizing the _love_ in it before. 

"I certainly am now.”

Childermass' eyes glinted further.  “Then what shall I do with you when you are being difficult?"

“I suppose you shall have to take me as I am.”

"I can think of nothing I should like to do more,” Childermass said slowly, “than to _take_ you.  Just as you are.”

Segundus shuddered faintly at the darkness in Childermass’ tone.  It was a wonderful sort of shudder, not to do with the cold or with anything unpleasant at all, but Segundus had not time to say so before Childermass tugged gently at the hand which still rested against his chest, used it to pull Segundus closer and then enfold him in his arms.  That was, it struck Segundus, precisely where he would best like to be.

“How do you feel now?” Childermass asked. 

“Better,” Segundus replied.  “Much warmer.”  Unfortunately in that moment there also came upon him a terrific urge to sneeze.  "Though I fear it may be too late.”  He buried the sneeze in the handkerchief Childermass had given to him, and backed off from him a little, though not enough that his forehead did not knock lightly against Childermass’.  “Forgive me,” he said.

Childermass, when Segundus regarded him with watering eyes, was laughing faintly. 

Looking at him, Segundus could not keep from laughing as well.  “I may begin to be difficult even earlier than anticipated,” he said after a while.

“That is all right,” Childermass replied, still laughing lowly.  “I shall make the best of it.”  And Segundus knew that he could, and more- and he found that there was nothing he would like better. 

**Author's Note:**

> Come see me on [tumblr](http://potentiality-26.tumblr.com).


End file.
